I have operated multiple businesses in my 40-year working career. Some of them have made money; others have lost it. Over decades of managing companies, I have discovered that unnecessarily complicating things is a bad idea. Sometimes, it’s the simplest business ideas that make the most money.
Keeping it simple is one key to a successful business. When you introduce complications unnecessarily, you only make it harder on yourself. Why do that? There is nothing less honorable about sticking with the basics. You are not cheating by developing a simple business model and making it work.
A Simple Way to Recycle Plastics
The point of business simplicity is illustrated easily enough in recycling industrial plastics. Seraphim Plastics, out of Tennessee, makes good money collecting industrial plastic scrap and converting it into regrind through a simple mechanical recycling process. Their method of recycling plastic waste is about as simple as it gets.
At the core of the company’s success is that customers who sell plastic scraps handle all the cleaning and sorting. Tennesse’s Seraphim Plastics needs to do is collect the material and transport it back to its facilities. Upon arrival, it can go directly from the truck to the grinders.
Seraphim Plastics’ mechanical recycling process is so simple that a grade school student could understand it. On the other hand, the recycling processes most municipal recycling programs rely on are exponentially more complicated. Guess what? While Seraphim Plastics makes very good money recycling industrial plastic waste, municipal recycling programs lose money hand over fist.
Simplicity in the Pizza Business
My first business was a pizza parlor in upstate New York. It was there that I learned to keep things simple. I did not own the pizza parlor, but I was a general manager with the authority to do whatever I wanted with it.
I started with a simple menu that included pizza, chicken wings, and a limited assortment of sandwiches. That was it. Other pizza parlors in the area did more. I remember one that served pasta dinners along with fish fries and tripe. I knew of another that sold homemade desserts and soft-serve ice cream.
I am inclined to expand our menu beyond the basics. However, the owner cautioned me against doing so. He told me to wait six months and then look at what the competition was doing. It was smart advice. Those other pizza parlors with the more extensive menus all went one of two ways: they cut their menus back to the basics or went out of business altogether.
Choose Something and Do It Right
Running the pizza parlor taught me the wisdom of choosing something to do and doing it right. Pizza, wings, and sandwiches were our specialty, so we focused on that. I am proud that the business is still operating successfully nearly 40 years later.
In Seraphim Plastics’ case, they figured out how to recycle industrial scrap plastic cost-effectively. They found their niche, discovered their one thing, and did it better than anyone else. That is why they remain an industry leader in the seven states they operate in.
As I near retirement, I spend more time paying attention to how companies do business. Some businesses still complicate things unnecessarily, while others keep things as simple as possible. I’ll leave you to figure out which ones make money and struggle. For my money, a simple business plan is the way to go.
